


For Narnia!

by orphan_account



Category: Merlin (TV)
Genre: First Meetings, Fluff, M/M, Pre-Relationship, Tumblr Prompt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-30
Updated: 2015-07-30
Packaged: 2018-04-12 01:50:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,579
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4460672
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Merlin jumps out of a wardrobe at IKEA yelling "For Narnia!" and accidentally lands on top of Arthur.</p>
            </blockquote>





	For Narnia!

[for this prompt](http://whataremylines.tumblr.com/post/121336749910/i-jumped-out-of-a-wardrobe-in-ikea-screaming-for)

~*~

The wardrobe is a lot smaller than Merlin thought it would be. A  _lot_  smaller, actually - he can barely move inside it and is therefore cramped in an awkward position, trying to keep the door closed and still peer out into the large IKEA building through the crack between the doors. The display wardrobe in the area that sold flat-pack furniture had looked a lot larger from the outside. He isn't in there for the fun of it (that would be weird); he's there for a dare, given to him by none other than Will. Embarrassing dares aren't a change for Merlin; Freya and Will are great at imagining up creative and sometimes mildly mortifying dares. The three of them had been picking out dares from a large glass jar full of dares they'd all written on paper and contributed. Once a month each of them would take out a dare, read it aloud, be laughed at for their misfortune and made to complete it within the week or they would have to take the dares from everyone else instead. Once their dares were completed, they'd have to write a new one for the jar so they never ran out. They all thought it was quite a good system. None of them had ever seriously pulled out of a dare - they didn't want to and didn't want to do two instead either. Someone was only allowed to seriously pull out and just have a replacement dare if it was a very serious and important reason, but none had arisen so far.

One dare he'd been given by Will was the 'walking around in public wearing an extremely feminine wig and and flouncy dress with a conveniently-shaped pillow underneath his clothes that made him look pregnant and faking going into labour on a side-walk' dare he did during the last holidays, which ended in him running out of there as soon as someone suggested they call an ambulance. There was also the 'buying a deluxe packet of condoms, and rubber duck and the DVD of the children's movie Shrek in one transaction' dare from Freya, in which he got so many weird looks from the cashier and other people in the queue that he was almost running when he finally exited the store.

In Merlin's opinion, this dare isn't as bad as some others. Today's a quiet day because most people are on holiday so hopefully not too many people will be around to watch. And at least this dare is obviously meant to be a joke so hopefully the person he's going to jump in front of is going to take it light-heartedly. Freya's filming from behind a display curtain, of course, and Will is watching alongside her, so it's not like no one's ever going to see how the dare goes.

Merlin waits, crouching in the wardrobe for not too long before he thinks he sees the next shopper approaching. He waits until the person (he thinks it might be a man, by their figure and gait, but that isn't a problem) is almost right up to the wardrobe ... almost ... just a few more steps ... 

"For Narnia!" he screams loudly, jumping out of the wardrobe with his arms in a triumphant ready-to-attack formation.

Unfortunately, it turns out that he'd waited just a bit too long for the person (who is now confirmed to be a man) to get closer and he's jumped out to late, which means Merlin lands on top of the stranger and sends them both flying straight to the ground.

"What the fuck?" the stranger says rather loudly, lying on his back on the ground looking somewhat dazed.

"Oh shit, I'm so sorry." Merlin says from above him where he was accidentally straddling one of the man's legs. He can hear the insane laughter of Will and Freya from their hiding place and he desperately wishes they would shut up. He quickly dust angles himself from the stranger and helps him stand up. 

"I'm so sorry," Merlin apologises. The stranger huffs in response, dusting off his jeans. Merlin feels his face flushing a bit. This is not how it was meant to go. The stranger opens his mouth to say something but Merlin speaks before he can get any words out.

"Okay, uh, can I have your number?"

"Do I know you?" the stranger asks sceptically after a moment of silence.

"Uh, I'm Merlin -"

"So I don't know you." he says and Merlin nods.

"What kind of a name is  _Merlin_ , anyway?" the man says again and Merlin shrugs. Looking at him properly now, he's actually quite handsome. His blonde hair frames his strong jaw almost perfectly. He's a little bit shorter than Merlin, too, and has nice eyes. Stunning eyes, in fact, and Merlin doesn't realise he's staring at them until the stranger speaks up again, trying to get his attention.

"Are those your friends behind the curtain?"

"Yeah," Merlin says, Will and Freya's laughter still coming from behind the display curtain, though a bit more repressed than before. "They dared me to jump out of the wardrobe,"

The stranger looks amused and folds his arms across his chest. Merlin can very easily see the man's muscles now and wonders whether he did that on purpose.

' _Self-absorbed prat_ ,' Merlin thinks to himself.

"Look, can I have your number?" Merlin asks. "My friends aren't going to leave me alone for the rest of my life if I don't get it."

The man is silent for what seems like hours, clearly pondering on whether he should give Merlin his number. The man looks at Merlin directly in the eyes and Merlin starts to get a little bit uncomfortable. He feels like he's being mentally surveyed by the stranger to make sure he's not a stalker or a serial killer.

"Yeah, sure," the man sighs suddenly. Merlin lets out the breath he didn't know he was holding and fishes out his phone. The stranger swiftly enters in his name and mobile number and hands the phone back.

"Thank you so much," Merlin smiles at the stranger, who has entered their name in the contact as Arthur. He hears Will and Freya's 'oohs' and wolf-whistles from their hiding spot.

"No problem." Arthur says slowly, shoving his hands into his jeans' pockets and looking over at where Freya and Will are.

"Well, have a nice day."

Arthur nods before walking off and continuing with his shopping. Merlin hurriedly walks off to where his friends have resumed their giggles. 

"Are you kidding, guys?" Merlin hisses loudly when he reaches Will and Freya crouched behind the curtain, still laughing.

"You should have seen your face when you fell on him!" Freya gasped through her laughter. "I'm so glad I was filming - that was priceless!"

"Are you going to call him?" asks Will.

"That wasn't part of the dare," Merlin says hurriedly. "so -"

"So you're going to," Freya interrupts with a straight face and a very serious voice before breaking the serious attitude and smiling. "because we could just  _see_  the way you were looking at him,"

"Wha-"

"Heart-eyes," Freya begins singing quite loudly with a smile still on her face, swaying from side to side a bit and knocking into Will, who's smirking.

"It was not 'heart-eyes', I was only looking at him," Merlin tries to reason. Freya raises an eyebrow at him from where she's crouched.

"Let's go, the dare's over now anyway." Merlin says shortly, turning around and heading through the store to the exit, not bothering to check behind him that Freya and Will are following.

Contrary to Freya's belief, he was  _not_  looking at Arthur with 'heart-eyes' - he would have noticed if he was. Freya's obviously exaggerating or making it up to annoy him or get him to admit the feelings that he definitely doesn't have, because he's not attracted to Arthur. Arthur is, admittedly, quite good-looking, and probably one of those people that is nicer when you get to know them (not that he was nasty to Merlin but he seemed a bit full of himself) and has stunning eyes that anyone could get lost in, but Merlin's definitely not attracted to him, not romantically nor sexually. Not at all. It's just a dare - he's going to delete Arthur's number and never think of him again. Arthur will be glad that Merlin never contacted him because if the awkward meeting. All set. Awkwardness over.

Yet when he gets back to his apartment he can't help but be drawn to his phone and open up Arthur's contact. He decides that he'll send a quick text to apologise for the awkwardness. Not because he just wants to talk to Arthur again - it's because he feels like he hasn't apologised enough.

 

_Message to:_ Arthur

_Sent:_ 2:16pm

_hey this is merlin from ikea im really sorry about falling on top of you and I hope you don't hate me but that doesn't really matter anyway because im going to delete your contact after I send this because you probably dont want anything to do with me okay thanks bye_

 

_Message from:_ Arthur

_Received:_  2:19pm

_maybe if you let me buy you a drink sometime I'll forget about the awkwardness_

 

_Message to:_ Arthur

_Sent:_ 2:20pm

_did you just ask me out by text message_

 

_Message from:_ Arthur

_Received:_ 2:20pm

_yes_

_Message to:_ Arthur

_Sent:_  2:21pm

_oh god I'm disappointed in you_

 

-la fin-


End file.
